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The Lighterage System · · Inthe New York / New Jersey Harbor

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The Lighterage System · · Inthe New York / New Jersey Harbor THE LIGHTERAGE SYSTEM · · INTHE NEW YORK / NEW JERSEY HARBOR A Publication ol The Hudson Waterfront Museum in Conjunction with the Exhibition on the Lehigh Valley Covered Barge #79 Liberty State Park, Jersey City, New Jersey July 1992 Cover Photo: ShipYard Workers Photograph, circa 1910, shows ship yard workers of the Union Dry Dock & Repair Company, which was headquartered at the time in Weehawken, New Jersey. Presently located in Hoboken, New jersey, Union Dry Dock has been in continuous operation since 1908. Union Dry Dock was an integral part of the lighterage system, servtcmg maritime equipment in the New York/New jersey harbor. As New jersey's only dry dock facility, Union Dry Dock still employs approximately 100 workers, many of them Hudson County residents. The Hudson Waterfront Museum presents THE LIGHTERAGE SYSTEM IN THE NEW YORK/ NEW JERSEY HARBOR Curated by Robert Foster and Jane Steuerwald Presented on the Lehigh Valley Covered Barge #79 Liberty State Park Jersey City, New Jersey July 1992 This exhibition and publication have been made possible through generous funding by the New Jersey Historical Commission. The Lighterage System Table of Contents Following is a series of articles written by the curators, Robert Foster and Jane Steuerwald, providing a more in-depth look at the lighterage system. Included in the text are comments by deckhands, tug captains, a barge captain, and other maritime workers that participated in this oral history project. The Hudson River . 5 The Lighterage System . 8 Railroads and the Lighterage System .......... ........................... 10 Vessels in the Harbor . ... .... ......... .... ... .. .. .. ... 12 Lehigh Valley Covered Barge #79 .............. .......... ............ 14 Memories of a Barge Captain . 16 Cross Harbor Railroad .... .... ...................................... 18 Maintenance . 20 Workers and Their Jobs . 22 An Interview with Jack Quimby . 24 An Interview with Sal NotariZe . 26 Maritime Tools ..... .. ................................... , 28 Sources . .. .. .. ......... ................ ..................... 31 Hudson Watca·fa•ont Museum - lV- in the New York I New Jersey Harbor The Hudson River "Between 1910 and 1960 New York and New Jersey made up one of the leading ports in the world." As you look out over the Hudson River river, the railroad carfloats transporting today, you still may see an occasional freight, and the tugboats each sounding tugboat pushing a barge up river, a their own individual steam whistles, the tanker moving slowly through the water harbor looked and sounded like a traffic or an ocean liner bound for the islands · jam in midtown Manhattan. pulling out of port. Between 1910 and 1960, New York and But only a few decades ago the waters New Jersey made up one of the leading and the piers along the New Jersey side ports in the world. As cargo and of the Hudson were swarming with immigrants sailed in from the Atlantic on activity. Boats often had to wait nearly oceanliners, freight was transported two hours just to unload their freight. across the harbor on barges and lighters, Between the ferry boats moving and people crossed the river on ferries to passengers back and forth across the connect with thirteen different railroad Hudson Watet•ft·ont Museum - 5 - The Lighterage System lines on the New Jersey side of the trans-atlantic steamship company docked Hudson. in Hoboken and in 1947 they bought the property making them the only major "I used to go do·wn and sit on the docks late transatlantic steamship company to own at night, before I was due to go on duty, and its own terminal in the port. just listen to those tugboat whistles. Calling back and forth up the harbor. You knew The river itself, in spite of its geography from the sound of the whistle what boat it affecting a natural port, can be extremely was. At that time, there were 750 tugs in hazardous. At its peak one of the New York Harbor. Each whistle had a hazards for vessels involved in lighterage different sound to it. No two Lackawanna was the continuous traffic. But boats sounded the same. There was a whole congestion alone was not the only system of code signals by whistle before the hazard. Harsh winters and tricky tides days of radio." - Jack Quimby, oiler and could also add to the problems engineer, Lackawanna Railroad marine encountered by tugboats, ferries, and division. carfloats. At the harbor's peak the Pennsylvania "In New York Harbor, you have an ebb and Railroad alone had more than 500 hulls flow of tide. A flood tide. On certain piers, in the water and there were several you can't land with the tide, you've got to go thousand boats in the harbor. Many of against the tide. The other way it'll just the ships lining the New Jersey side of push you down the river. It's scary when 1 the Hudson were ocean liners. The think of it now. In the wintertime, in ice and history of her docks and piers would not snow, these barges only had about a foot wide be complete without the great ships that walkway around, and if you slipped off, you docked there. had it. You had to be very relaxed. You had to be ready to grab or drop, or you'd get In the early days, the 1880's until about knocked over the side. 1910, most of the ships were German. The Hamburg-Amerika Line and North What made it interesting and nerve wracking German Lloyd dominated the trans­ was that you had to know your tides. It was atlantic traffic and owned docks up and quite a bit of manual work if you happened to down the river side of Hoboken. But be working locally, but when you· got a tow when World War I erupted, the German­ going to Staten Island or Port Newark, it'd owned docks and piers were seized and take about two hours. Then you had time to locked. The German ships were relax. But you had to work like heck before eventually replaced by another great that to get your tow made up and all your shipping company, The Holland-America barges lashed together. Line. From 1910 through 1963 this major Hudson Watca·fa·ont Museum - 6 - in the New York f New Jersey Harbor The main thing was, you never went to the go. Now it's nothing, but years ago same place twice or saw the same thing. something was moving, going across or up You'd do every job different every time. New and down constantly. It was really York Harbor is so interesting. I've been up challenging and fascinating." Hollis and down past the Statue of Liberty every Maupin, deckhand, Erie Railroad marine day and it just looks different every time you division. Hudson Watca·fa·ont Museum - 7 - The Lighterage System The Lighterage System "The term lighter originally referred to vessels used to lighten the load of ships attempting to dock in shallow waters." America was once moved by freight. became known as lighterage. The term Railroad tracks crisscrossed the country, lighter originally referred to vessels used with many of the great railroads to lighten the load of ships attempting to beginning and ending at terminals on dock in shallow waters. the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. Of course there were ma ny types of Because the geography of New York marine equipment moving back and Harbor dictated that it was more suitable forth across the harbor at one time. Car for terminals to be situated on the banks floats and barges moved enormous of New Jersey, a system for moving amounts of freight - some car floats freight back and forth across the Hudson could accommodate rail cars back to back became necessary. for up to three hundred feet and could line cars up next to each other three Such a system was developed and it tracks abreast. These particular car floats Hudson Watea·fa·ont Museum - 8 - in the New York I New Jersey Harbor were known as transfer car floats. Station absorbed the additional costs of floats had a platform in the middle of two lighterage, the shippers stayed happy but tracks and allowed freight to be moved eventually the cost to the railroads from one car to another while the railcars became prohibitive. Expenses for the stayed on the float. lighterage system continued to climb as the volume of cargo decreased. Trucking Almost none of this marine equipment and container ships quickly moved in could get anywhere under its own steam. and the railroads could no longer The only lighterage equipment that was compete. self-propelled was an occasional barge delivering mail. Most everything in the A system of moving cargo that at one harbor would have been dead in the time consisted of float bridges, car floats, water without tugboats. The tugs tugboats, ferries, and barges - more than pushed, pulled, and maneuvered - they 2500 pieces of marine equipment were the heartbeat of the lighterage chugging back and forth across the system, with each rail line from Erie, to Hudson River- has virtually disappeared. Pennsylvania Central, to New York Both the New York and New Jersey Central operating its own fleet of tugs. banks of the Hudson are no longer ports for lighterage - the river banks are now The lighterage system was swift and lined with vacant piers, abandoned float efficient - a virtual boon to the shipping bridges, and empty marine terminals. industry. Because the railroad companies Hudson Watca·fl·ont l\1uscum - 9 - The Lighterage System Railroads and the Lighterage System "At the harbor's peak, the Pennsylvania Railroad alone had more than 500 hulls, and there were several thousand boats in the harbor." The Port of New York and New Jersey is had terminals ending on the New Jersey one of the best deep-water ports in the side of the Hudson.
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